To Save Them
by Traci
Summary: Nick and Catherine are following up on a crime scene when an accident nearly costs Catherine her life. CG friendly.


Disclaimer: Yet again, not mine no matter how much time passes.  Belong to some guy named Bruckheimer.  Guess he lucked out with having one hit show in his career (note the sarcasm there).  

Rating: PG

Spoilers: None

Category: Drama, team friendship – sorta fluff but more on the drama side.

Author:  Traci

Summary:  Nick and Catherine are sent out to search for more clues at a murder scene.  It seems like just another dull night until an accident nearly costs Catherine her life.

Author Notes:  As I write this I'm realizing that lately I just have a thing for injuring Catherine.  Huh.  Not sure why.  Oh well.  Oh, and it seems that I am in a Halloween mood really early for some reason.  Either that or the dark side of Stephen King is channeling through me hehe. Wait, that's not funny… I want royalties if that's the case!!!

To Save Them 

"You have got to be kidding me."  Catherine Willows' strawberry-blonde hair swept into her face in the strong night breeze.

"Hey, I just do what Grissom tells me to."  The tall Texan with the boyish face grinned at her knowing there was no way she could stay angry.

"Nicholas Stokes, wipe that grin off your face this instant," she hissed, though smiling.  "Well, if it's what Grissom wants…"  Annoyed, she pulled her hair back, wrapping it in a scrunchy then started walking.

"Cat?"

She stopped and turned around.  "What?  Aren't you coming?"

"Uh, not without this."  Nick held up a large flashlight and smiled.

Turning back to the drainpipe, she said, "Oh."

Nick caught up to her and cautiously they climbed down the ladder.  

He shined the flashlight around.  "The report said they found the body not far from the entrance."

Taking a few steps forward, Catherine suddenly stopped.

"What is it?"

"I… I don't know.  Something just doesn't feel right."  She shrugged.  "Maybe it's just me."  She started to walk towards Nick when she fell down into the water.

Nick chuckled at first since the water was only six inches deep but when Catherine didn't resurface, he yelled, "Catherine!"  In an instant he was down on his knees searching with his hands for her.  More than a few seconds had passed and fear of the worst was growing.  Finally he felt human hair.  He tried to follow it along to find her but found a deep hole instead.  Almost instantly he felt her grab his arm, clinging to it.  Nick tried pulling but she wouldn't come up.  Taking out a pair of goggles, Nick slid them over his eyes, took a deep breath and put his face in the water.  With the flashlight he was able to see the desperation in her eyes as she struggled.  Shining the light down the hole he found her foot had become entangled in what looked like a small animal trap.  Able to reach her mouth, he placed his own over hers and breathed into her then returned to the surface to inhale more air.  He pulled out his cell phone.  

"Grissom."

"Grissom!  We have an emergency here.  Catherine's trapped underwater.  Get someone out here now!" was all he said before disconnecting.

Gil Grissom, leader of the graveyard shift CSI team, paled.

"Griss?"

He picked up the phone and contacted anyone who would be able to help.  When he hung up he looked over at Warrick Brown, who was sitting on a nearby chair.  "Grab Sara."

*****************

Nick had continued trying to free Catherine while providing her with oxygen at the same time.  She was still alive but he knew she was fading fast.  Upon resurfacing again he discovered that five minutes had passed since he had placed the call.  He heard commotion above and yelled to whoever was up there.  Taking another breath, he again went down to breath into Catherine.

Hands pulled him up again.  He was relieved to see a scuba tank with the EMT's.  "Her foot is caught in something.  I've been breathing for her but…"

The man nodded.  "Don't worry, we've got it now."

Nick stepped back and watched as the EMT put on goggles as well, started the oxygen flow to the mask and went under to give it to Catherine.  He came back up almost immediately and looked at Nick.  "She's breathing fine thanks to you."  He then looked at his partner.  "Tell them we need strong cutters to cut through iron.  It doesn't appear to have broken the skin but I can't say for sure."  Turning back to Nick, he said, "Go on up.  We've got her now."

Hesitating, Nick slowly nodded and followed the second EMT up the ladder.

"Nick!  How's Catherine?"

His eyes met those of Grissom.  "I…"  He swallowed hard.  "She's still trapped.  They… they have her hooked up to a scuba tank right now."  Tears welled in his eyes.  "I couldn't…"

Grissom rested a hand on his shoulder.  "You did everything you could.  She's in good hands now.  Go get yourself checked over."

He shook his head.  "I'm fine."

Warrick walked over with Sara Sidle, both holding two cups of coffee each.  They handed one to Grissom and one to Nick.

Sara looked at Nick for a moment.  "What happened?"

"We went down to look for evidence.  There's only about six inches of water down there so when she fell into it I thought she had just tripped on something but she never came back up."  He took a long sip of coffee.  "When I finally located her, she had fallen straight down a pipe or hole or something and her leg was tangled in something.  I couldn't get far enough down to reach it."  Nick's eyes stared towards the pipe.  "If anything happens…"

"Hey, don't think like that."  Warrick leaned against the Tahoe.  It was going to be a long wait.  

**********************

The four team members grew anxious as each minute passed.  It had been nearly half an hour since Nick had told them what happened.  A rescue team was sent down but no one had come back up.

Grissom tried not to show his fear but with no word even he was beginning to fear the worst.  Catherine had been his sidekick, his best friend, his… well, she had been there for him for nearly eighteen years now.  What if…

And EMT climbed up from the pipe and walked over to the CSI team.

"How is she?" Nick asked before anyone else could.

"They're still working on releasing her.  She's breathing and she's conscious.  I just put a call in for stronger cutters.  The ones we have aren't able to get all the way through."

"She's been underwater for over half an hour," Sara commented.

The EMT left to return to the rescue.

Grissom's phone rang.  "Grissom."

"Hey, it's Greg."  Greg Sanders, lab-rat, hesitated.  "I got the results back on those fingerprints…"

Closing his eyes, Grissom realized he had completely forgotten about work in his worry over Catherine.  "And?"

"You're not going to believe this…"

"Just tell me, Greg," he snapped.

"Right.  They belong to an Officer Daley of the Vegas PD."

"You're saying a cop killed those two women?"

"I'm not saying anything.  I'm just telling you the results of the fingerprint test."

"Alright.  Thanks."  He hung up before Greg had a chance to ask him about Catherine.

Warrick looked up from where he was seated on the bumper.  "A cop?"

"Officer Daley was the name tied to the fingerprints."

Nick stared at him.  "He's down there with Catherine!"  Dropping his Styrofoam cup, he ran towards the drainage pipe with the others close behind.

They were stopped by an officer standing at the opening.  "You can't go down there."

"Where is Officer Daley?" Grissom demanded.

"He's down there helping out," the other officer offered.

"Get him up here now," Grissom hissed.

The officer opened his mouth to protest but called down for Daley to come up instead.

No one answered.

The officer called again but was quickly pushed aside by the CSI team.  All froze when they got down there.  The rescue workers were tied up along the wall and the scuba tank was gone.

Shaking, Grissom grabbed Nick's goggles, a flashlight and looked in the water for Catherine.  He found the hole she had fallen into but she was not there.  He surfaced.

"Grissom?" Nick asked.

He shook his head.  "She's not there."  He turned to the rescuers as Sara and Warrick untied them.  "What happened here?"

"We got her out then the officer pulled a gun.  He took her down that way," one of the EMT's offered, pointing to a passage on the left.

"Nick, you're with me."  Grissom looked over at the others.  "You two process the scene, what you can, here.  Find out what else they know."  

Sara and Warrick watched their friends disappear down the dark passage then went to work.

"Were you able to find anything at the scene at all?" Grissom asked.

Nick shook his head.  "We had just started when Catherine went down."

"Why take Catherine?" Grissom thought aloud.  "There were four other people down there with him.  Why risk it?"

Nick held up his hand to stop.

There was a loud splash up ahead.

"Rat?" Nick whispered.

"Let's find out." 

As quietly as they could they proceeded forward.  A few feet away they could see the passage turned and there was the soft glow of light reflecting off the damp walls.

"You weren't supposed to be rescued from that," Daley hissed.

Nick and Grissom stopped just close enough to hear the voices, gauging the situation.

"You set the traps," Catherine stated.  "You killed those two women."

Daley snorted.  "Yeah.  I figured the evidence would come back to me eventually.  What they don't understand is I was doing them a favor.  They would have been hurt."

Catherine's voice was weak with exhaustion but she continued.  "How would they have been hurt?"

Grissom looked at Nick and motioned the go ahead.

"All the evil in this world.  I saved them.  I released them just like I will release you."

"You're not releasing anyone anymore," Grissom shouted as they closed in on him.

Daley's eyes grew wide.  He lifted his gun, aiming it first at Catherine then at Nick and finally settling on Grissom.

All froze.  

"Put the gun down, Daley."  Grissom said.  "No one else has to get hurt."

"I didn't hurt them.  I saved them," he argued again.

Nick, meanwhile, made his way over to Catherine and untied her hands.

Catherine gasped when Daley cocked the pistol, still aimed at Grissom.

Daley's eyes fell upon her.  Before anyone could react, he lifted the gun to his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The three CSI members stood stunned.  Within a moment two officers ran up behind them.  Once Grissom explained what happened he walked towards Nick and Catherine.  She had been leaning against Nick for support but as Grissom approached, her eyes filled with tears and she held out her arms to him.

With concern in his eyes and a smile on his lips, he held her tight.  "It's over now," he whispered.   

Feeling slightly uncomfortable, Nick turned to walk away but was stopped by Catherine who, breaking away from Grissom then wrapped her arms around Nick.  "Thank you for saving my life," she told him.

He held her.  "Just don't make it a habit."

She looked at him and smiled.  Nick let go of her when Grissom slid his arm around Catherine's waist.  "Let's get out of here."

****************************

"Knock, knock."

Grissom looked up from the file on his desk.  "What are you doing here?  You're supposed to be at home recovering."

Catherine flopped onto the nearby couch.  "I got bored."

Remaining serious, his eyes locked with hers.  "You almost drowned."

"I think I'm aware of that, thank you," she countered.

"Catherine…"

"I didn't drown.  Things happen on this job.  If I start letting them get to me now I'm not going to be any good to anybody."

Grissom got up and sat beside her.  "Okay.  I'll play this game.  Even if you are fine emotionally, physically you still need time to recover."

Yawning, she rested her head on his shoulder.  "Lindsey's at a friends house…"

He smiled.  He now understood why she was there.  "And you didn't want to be alone."  

"Is that childish of me?" she sheepishly asked.

Lifting her face to look at him, he shook his head.  "No.  It's human of you."

With a large grin, she rested her head on his shoulder once again.  

A moment later, Grissom got up.

Catherine stared at him.

He shut the blinds in his office and locked the door then returned to the couch where he pulled her close once again.  "If you fall asleep I don't want anyone disturbing you."

"Always thinking of others," Catherine teased as she laid an arm around his abdomen and curled up beside him.  

Waiting until she was asleep, he responded, "Always thinking of you."

The End


End file.
